PRODUCTION WEEK FIVE – 1st December 2019 

I’m so happy with how the show went on Friday. I think everything sounded really well, and the studio for the OB looked great. Everyone should be really proud of themselves! It was a much better improvement from our previous pilots, thanks to some last minute changes to song segues. The changing of some of the songs did mean I had to frantically edit some new posts for social media about the songs that were being played on the morning of the final show to ensure that the socials wouldn’t go through waves of being lively one minute but then completely dying and having minimal posts the next. I had also created a document on google drive with all of the written parts of my social media, so that I could just quickly copy and paste them and post them on the 3 platforms at the exact same time, and avoided the frantic typing of each post separately. I also added on a social media schedule on the running order, and this also made everything a lot easier as I could see the exact time I was meant to post, and I also ticked off each post on the schedule when I posted them to avoid posting the same pictures twice.

Once the profile picture was finalised by branding, it really made the socials look professional and I’m very happy with how they looked! I have attached some pictures of how each platform looked below:

Instagram: 

Instagram Stories: 

Twitter: 

Facebook: 

Additionally, I am happy with how the competition turned out too! I changed the questions for the competition, and having 4 questions instead of 5 flowed a lot better time-wise. I changed some of the questions that everyone got wrong during the pilot as well to ensure that everyone would at least get one point! Having the competition spread out between the songs also made it run a lot smoother and sound better, instead of having 2 callers on the phone at the same time where a lot of technical issues can occur. I was a bit panicky for weeks prior about using the phone, and making sure that there were no technical difficulties while they were on air. But in the end everything turned out perfectly, and we had callers that fit in with the right demographic for the show too.

Well done everyone!

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PRODUCTION WEEK FOUR – 25th November 2019 

On Friday we had our first official pilot! I think it went quite well, we had a meeting afterwards and I frantically wrote down some minutes from it so that everyone could have a look at it and see any specific parts that they need to do.

During the pilot I was posting to social media. But it was advised that I create my own running order, to show when specifically I need to post to social media and on what platform (if necessary). And during the pilot I could definitely see why this is needed! I found myself very stressed throughout it, as I didn’t give myself a clear plan of when to post. Making a running order for social media will also ensure that my posts will be consistent on each platform. I was also thinking of having a word document so that I can copy and paste each post so that it saves me from frantically typing each post to ensure that they go out during the same time, and making sure that they all have the same emojis attached to them. Apart from this issue, I think social media went well! And I think that it will go even better during the second pilot and the actual show once I create the social media running order after the official running order for the show has been finalised too. I have created headers for both the twitter and facebook page, but unfortunately the profile picture has not been created yet. I have been assured that it will be done by the second pilot though. I am happy with how the pages look, but the profile picture will really make the pages look more professional. I have attached pictures below of what the social media pages look like.

I was also in charge of the competition. After focusing so much on who to get for the actual show, I completely forgot that we needed to get people for the pilot! One person had answered their phone, the other person didn’t so luckily we had Niyara to be a caller for us. Over all the competition went well, but it was advised that I change some of the questions and limit the number of questions so that they will be easier for people to get correct answers. It was also advised to spread out the competition a bit more so that I have more time to promote it on social media, and for the listeners to “text in”. Andrea has said that she knows people who will be able to phone in for Thursday and just needs them to confirm that they are available, and Im currently trying to find one more person for Friday’s show, as we have one confirmed already. I will also try to find a backup as well, in case we have another situation where the caller will not pick up their phone.

My advert now sounds okay, and has been added to myriad. And I have also recorded my parents for the ‘Oh That Takes Me Back’ feature which was edited by Simone, so I’ve successfully done all the tasks that I set myself out to do last week.

Now it’s time for the real thing!

To conclude, my tasks for this week are:

• – Create a social media running order
• – Write up a word document with all of the posts that I’m going to make so I can just copy and paste them in
• – Re-arrange the questions for the competition
• – Find another caller for the competition.

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PRODUCTION WEEK THREE – 17th November 2019

As we were doing a one hour practice of the pilot on Friday, it was essential that I finalised the layout of what I wanted the social media posts to look like. I mainly focused on Instagram, as you can only post photos, so I wanted the images I uploaded to be fitting in with the station’s branding that Hannah created. During our 1 hour show, I uploaded the pictures that I created in fitting of when they were mentioned on air. I am happy with how they look, but I was thinking of making a few adjustments to the text colour in some of the images so that there was a bit more variety in the pictures were uploaded. I also think that I should make a few more images like the ‘get in contact’ one, that don’t necessarily have to be posted during a specific time during the show. But also keeps the social media feeds lively so that it encourages an audience to engage more throughout the show, I will aim to have this done by the first pilot. An example of the instagram page and a few of the posts that I posted during the one hour show can be seen below. A profile picture will be added later on when the lunchbox imaging is created. I am also going to create a header that will be used for both the Twitter and Facebook page, I have presented my concept for it to both Hannah and Charlie and they have approved. So that will be one of my tasks for this week.

I have added a couple of cash register ‘kaching’ sound effects to my Love2Shop advert, Charlie and Andrea said that they liked how it sounded so I will keep them in, but Charlie suggested that I should add in a couple more sound effects to give the advert some more life. I will do this over the week and aim to have my advert finished by the first pilot.

I finished both the competition and the live read, and when Lauren read it out on air during our one hour show it sounded good! During our meeting on Friday afternoon we were discussing who the callers would be. A few people have suggested some people that I can contact, so I will do this over the next few days and ensure to have a backup to finalise this.

In our meeting on Friday afternoon we were also discussing what voices we would need for the ‘Oh That Takes Me Back’ feature. It was suggested that I get my parents to record their voices so we can use them as they fit in with the target demographic for our station. I will record this before the next pilot so that their voices can be edited for the pilot.

Additionally, I have also been helping Charlie out with writing up the notes from the minutes that she has taken from our first meetings and uploading them to the google drive so that everyone can have a look at them if they were not present during the meeting or if they would like a refresher.

To conclude, my tasks to complete for next week are:

• – Create some more Instagram posts
• – Create the header that will be used on Twitter and Facebook
• – Add some sound effects to advert
• – Contact people to be callers for the competition
• – Record my parents voices for the ‘Oh That Takes Me Back’ feature.

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PRODUCTION WEEK TWO – 10th November 2019

Reading week has given me plenty of time to catch up with my jobs for the show, and I think that I have achieved a lot! My first task was to start creating my plans and brief for the competition. As we decided that the theme of the competition should be Dirty Dancing themed, I created many questions based on Dirty Dancing trivia. I presented this idea to my group who said that they really liked the concept of the idea, but it was advised to open the questions out and relate them to dancing so that the questions were a bit easier for the callers to answer. I have also adjusted the mechanics of the competition slightly, so that 2 callers will be on air instead of 3. This has also enabled me to easily incorporate what happens if there is a tie breaker, and make the competition run a lot smoother overall. I have also incorporated an audio question to give a bit more of a diversity. I will present this competition during our next meeting, and if it is approved by the group then I will begin to create a live read for Lauren to say when promoting the competition on air.

My other task was to start work on my Love2Shop advert. I contacted a professional voice over artist on Fiverr with my approved script, and once I received the audio back from this I began to find royalty free sound effects and music to add into the advert. I have so far edited a rough draft of it lasting 40 seconds exactly but I will add a few more sound effects in order to make it sound a bit more lively. I am happy with how it sounds so far.

Now that the branding for the station has been officially created and uploaded to the google drive, I am currently in the process of creating some templates to use for social media. I have a couple of drafts, but aim to come up with my final idea before our first pilot show. My inspiration has been from Radio 1’s Instagram as shown in the image below. I have also taken some images and videos of our O.B performing during Thursday’s class to use on social media as shown in the image below. And during this class I was discussing with Hannah and Andrea some ideas for how we can dress the set so that it is both interesting for listeners and also visual so that people will be encouraged to tune in on social media through instagram lives, videos etc. We are in the process of thinking of a special name for this too.

To conclude, my tasks to complete over the week are:

• – Finalise social media posts.
• – Finalise competition and start work on live read.
• – Liven up advert.

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PRODUCTION WEEK ONE – 28th October 2019 

After deciding the theme of our radio show I decided to listen to Absolute 80s, and watched that Absolute 80s Music Channel in order to get a feel for the radio station and the type of music that they play. This helped me to create my core artists list, so that we could put all of our core artists together as a group to decide the overall theme of our station. Listening to Absolute 80s has also helped me to develop my ideas further so that I not only included artists that I believed were true to the 80s, but artists that were true to the station so that our show fits in with the Absolute brand.

My main role for our show is being the Head of Interactive Content. So far I have created a Facebook Page, Instagram Page and Twitter Page for the show. At the moment the pages are blank, including profile pictures and headers. But after the branding has officially been decided upon I will be able to create posts that fit in with our brand. After we have decided on the definite features that we will be using on our show, I will also be able to schedule tweets, facebook posts and instagram posts so that they go out at the correct time during the radio show. This means that our audience will be able to engage with our content not only through the medium of listening but through interactive posts that I will create, encouraging them to like and comment.

We have all been tasked with creating an advert lasting between 20-40 seconds, and sticking to units of 10. I was given the brand Love2Shop. In preparation of this, I have been looking at Love2Shop adverts on YouTube in order to get a feel for their style of advertising, and so that my advert is true to the Love2Shop brand. I have also been looking for websites in which I can contact professional voice over artists to voice my advert. I aim to type up my script and contact a professional voice over artist by the end of this week. This will give me the ability to edit my advert in time for the pilot show.I have also volunteered to lead the competition element of our show. As a class we decided that the competition should be Dirty Dancing themed, as this relates to the prize of the competition, and also this is a core film from the 80s. I will aim to finish the brief and the mechanics of this competition by the end of the week, and post it in the slack and google drive for my peers to comment on. Once this has been completed, I will be able to then create a Live Read for Lauren to read out on air, promoting the competition.

To conclude, my tasks to complete over reading week are:

• – Start creating plans and the brief for the competition.
• – Start work on Love2Shop advert.